


Hunt is On

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [41]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 02:22:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13560663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: So begins the search for the Mythyrian Numbers.





	Hunt is On

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I'm trying to avoid going into detail about the card games that happen in this show because it's time consuming, I don't play the game, and who is honestly here for the card games in this card game anime?

When Yuma got home after Sargasso, she went right to the shower, turned it up as hot as she could stand, and scrubbed her skin as hard as she could. She forced herself to act normal at home and she went to school, knowing she couldn’t avoid her friends like she wanted to.

She’s managed to avoid Ryoga all day, and she doesn’t think he knows where she is right now. 

“I don’t know how it happened,” Yuma says as she finishes her story. “I mean, it’s one thing to change when I merge with Astral, but on my own? That was…well, it was something else.”

She’s looking at her friends but not really seeing them. She knows they must be shocked, Kotori and Rio were when they saw it in person. Neither of them have let go of her hands since they got to the school roof and Yuma started telling everyone the story of the Numeron code, Rei being a Barian, and what happened in Sargasso.

“I think I know how,” Astral says.

Yuma looks over at him—Rio relates what he says to the rest of the group.

“Sargasso was an alternate dimension. It worked differently than Earth, it fed on your rage and amplified it.” He hesitates. “I believe that, had we not formed Zexal for the second time…it would have killed you.”

Yuma can feel the blood drain from her face. Rio cuts herself off.

“What? What did Astral say?!” Tokunosuke demands.

“That Sargasso would have killed me,” Yuma spits. She shakes her hands free of Rio and Kotori and stands to pace the length of the roof. “This is getting out of hand, I mean it’s been out of hand for months, all these near deaths, including my own…” her voice cracks and she buries her face in her hands. “I didn’t want any of this. Fuck everything…all I wanted was Rio and Ryoga back.”

“You can—” Astral begins, and Yuma whirls on him.

“Don’t you fucking dare tell me I can stop. I can’t do that, because then what? Who’s going to keep the Barians from getting the Numeron code and wiping out Astral world, or hell, even Earth?” Yuma points at Astral, “I do not, for one moment, regret getting involved with you. If it weren’t for you and the numbers Ryoga would still be in a gang, I wouldn’t be friends with Takashi and Tokunosuke and Cathy, Rio would probably still be in coma, and I wouldn’t…have you.”

She lets her arms fall. She sits down, totally exhausted. “I just wish the good could stay good and the bad could stay far, far, far the fuck away from me.”

“Ain’t that the life,” Tetsuo says, plopping down next to Yuma. He puts an arm around Yuma’s shoulders and she turns to him and sobs into his shirt. “Alright, there, there,” Tetsuo says, patting her back. “You let it out. We all know you don’t mean that you wanted Astral out of your life. You’re fire and brimstone for sure, so no one’s really surprised you grew fangs, but you could come up to me with _two_ mouths full of fangs and nails like hawk talons and I’d still be like, ‘We riding our boards to school tomorrow or what?’”

Yuma sniffles and rubs her eyes. “I just don’t want you to get hurt, any of you.”

“Even if we did, it’s not your fault,” Tetsuo says. “What if it had been me who had the Emperor’s key? Would you leave me alone to deal with the Barians?”

Yuma shakes her head.

“There you go,” Tetsuo says.

Cathy comes over as well and sits on Yuma’s other side, wiping away Yuma’s tears with a handkerchief. “We’re with you all the way,” she says, sounding tearful herself.

Their lunchbreak ends with all of them in a group hug, tears shed all around. In the end, Yuma supposes she can’t keep them out of it—if nothing else, simply because Vector betrayed them, too.

 

* * *

 

When Yuma gets home she gives her grandma a kiss on the cheek and heads straight to her room. She tosses her backpack on her bed and heads to the attic, and nearly screams when she sees a figure sitting under her window.

“You!” She hisses, pointing at Ryoga, “What are you doing here?”

“Well you avoided me all day at school,” Ryoga says, scowling. “I knew you would be sulking in your room.”

“You’d sulk too if you turned into a monster,” Yuma says.

“Hmm,” Ryoga says, “Losing control of your anger because something took hold of your head. I have no idea what that’s like, nor have I ever sulked.”

Oh yeah, Number 17…

“Sorry,” Yuma says quietly.

Ryoga stands up and brushes off his pants. “You and Astral talk things out?”

Yuma hesitates.

“Ah,” Ryoga says, “So you talked about some things, but not about how violated you feel.”

“I mean…I did something similar to him,” Yuma mutters. “That’s how dark Zexal came about.”

Ryoga walks over to her and takes her hands. “If anything, maybe it’s a good thing,” he says. “I don’t think Astral could have understood your anger otherwise. It’s okay to be happy, but anger is important too. Too much is hurtful, yes, but you can’t be cool and collected all the time.”

Yuma nods. “I know, but…I really scared myself.”

“I’d be lying if I said you didn’t scare me,” Ryoga says, “But I’m not scared of you anymore.” He hugs her, and Yuma presses her face into his neck. Behind her, she feels another person hug her.

“Astral?”

“No, the boogeyman,” Astral says playfully.

“Ah, help me,” Yuma deadpans.

The three of them laugh, and then Ryoga leads the way down the ladder to retrieve Yuma’s backpack. He does her homework for her while she lays on her bed and vents about her fears and anxieties. Then he lays down next to her, Astral snuggles up on her other side, and the three of them take a nap.

It’s the best few hours of Yuma’s life.

 

* * *

 

There’s a reason that no Barian Emperor has ever checked if the legend is true, that Don Thousand lies trapped beneath the Barian sea. If any one of them touches the water of the sea, their skin burns. But Vector is beyond the control of mere pain—he needs power, he needs victory. If his skin burns off, so be it if he gets to Don Thousand.

Vector descends into the sea, the water searing every inch of his body, but the legend is true, and the God enters his body and gives him new strength. Vector leaves the sea feeling like he’s just taken a pleasant dip in spring water, and with new knowledge of hidden Numbers.

Vector smirks and spreads his wings, taking off for the palace. Time to send his fellow Barians on a hunt.

 

* * *

 

Yuma knows they’re in trouble when Rio jerks upright in history and her eyes get a glazed look. At first Yuma wonders if it’s a seizure, but then a chill goes through her own body and she realizes it’s far more sinister and uncontrollable.

Rio texts Ryoga under the desk to meet on the roof, and then she pretends to faint. Kotori and Yuma enthusiastically volunteer to take her to the nurse. Once they’re down the hall they head straight for their lockers to grab their shoes and jackets, and Yuma grabs her bag of tricks (which she’s taken to keeping on hand at all times) and skateboard (because she’s got a feeling she’ll want it), then they go to the roof.

Rio admits that she can’t sense anything anymore, but the feeling she got in class was intense. “I’m worried,” she says.

“Me too,” Yuma admits.

Suddenly the wind picks up and a shadow falls over them and they look up. The airship has appeared, and the four of them are shortly beamed up.

“What’s with this?” Yuma asks Astral.

“Something’s happened,” Astral says. “I was exploring the ship, and suddenly this map popped up.” Astral gestures, and a green, virtual representation of the Earth pops up. “As you can see, it has several red dots on it.”

It does indeed—seven, Yuma counts. “I know those locations,” she says. “They’re ruins, my dad went to them, he marked them on the map in the attic.” Yuma has had those locations memorized for years.

“Those locations contain Numbers,” Astral says.

“How do you know?” Yuma asks.

Astral looks guilty. “Because there was also a message, and I saw it.”

He gestures again, and up pops…

“DAD!” Yuma screams, running forward. She touches the image, and of course her hand goes right through it. It’s only a hologram, after all.

“Yuma, Astral,” Kazuma’s hologram says, “If you see this, it means things are getting bad. Yuma, my little star…I bet you’re not so little anymore, but you’re still too young for this. I wish for so many things to have been different, but for now, you and Astral can’t let the Barians get these seven Numbers. If they were to, the Barian’s powers would become immeasurable. Go to the ruins as soon as you can, and tread carefully. I know you can do this, and I’m proud of both of you.”

The hologram fades, and Yuma falls to her knees with her hands over her mouth. She can’t tell if she wants to sob, scream, or puke. She doubles over, feeling something building up inside her chest. She inhales deeply, and lets out a shout. _“HE KNEW!”_

She hears Kotori yelp, and Astral call her name. She gets to her feet, shaking and seeing red. “Dad knew about the Numbers! He had to, how else would he have set up this hologram?! And then he, he had the audacity to call me his star…” her voice breaks and her rage evaporates all at once, leaving her drained and sad. She feels a sob coming but desperately holds it back. “I’ll go find those Numbers, and I’ll find my dad, and I’ll give him a punch in the gut for this.”

Ryoga snorts. “Okay, so I guess we better get on it, then.”

Yuma looks over her shoulder at him. “We? All four of us?”

Ryoga nods. “Why not? We’re already here.”

“Now?!” Yuma cries, “What about school? Akari will kill me!”

“Your dad said ‘soon,’” Kotori says. “And Rio did just faint, so we have an excuse.”

So Ryoga calls Sayaka, who calls the school and says that Rio is being escorted home by her brother and friends. Kotori and Yuma repeat the lie to their families, and without stopping to even get a change of clothes, they take off in the airship, ignoring the red dot on the island of Japan and instead choosing to go to the dot in Columbia.

The five of them monitor the screens, but the space-hole they’re in seems even more volatile than the last one. Just as Yuma starts to question her decision to do this right now, a streak of light comes flying towards them, and Yuma zooms a camera in on it to see the face of a Barian.

Everyone screams. The Barian collides with the ship, and they all go flying.

 

 

Yuma wakes up with her back against a tree, dirt in her mouth, and her ears ringing. She sits up and clutches her head as it spins.

“Goddamnit,” she mutters. Why is she outside? Where is the airship?

The Barian!

Yuma leaps to her feet, staggers, and feels a hand on her arm.

“You okay?” Astral asks.

“Yeah,” Yuma says. “Why aren’t we in the ship?”

“I don’t know,” Astral admits. “I suspect the Barian had something to do with it.”

Yuma looks around. They’re alone, but the forest definitely looks South American, though that doesn’t mean they’re in Columbia, or anywhere near the ruin. “Guess we should find the others,” she says, feeling the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes.

She hears a roar from close by—a roar she recognizes as belonging to a speckled bear.

“Crap, there’s bears afoot!” She cries, taking off in the direction of the roar and hoping the creature hasn’t cornered someone.

It has, and she doesn’t recognize the boy cowering before the bear, but she’s nothing if not her father’s daughter. She lets out a howl and waves her arms above her head. The bear turns to her, and she continues screaming, waving her arms, and making herself as odd and threatening as possible. As she does that, Astral puts himself in front of her and stares the bear down. After a few seconds, the bear meanders off.

Yuma sighs. “Scared him right off,” she says, more for the unknown boy’s benefit than her own.

Speaking of the unknown boy, he suddenly groans and falls to the ground. Yuma turns to him. “Are you hurt?” She asks in English.

The boy looks at her in confusion, then nods slowly. She kneels in front of him and takes his arm. He hisses in pain, and she winces as she sees the gash in his upper arm. She takes off her backpack and digs out her first aid kit, and is just setting about cleaning the would when Ryoga comes crashing through the undergrowth.

“Yuma, get away from him!” Ryoga demands.

“Shut up,” Yuma says, “I’m just bandaging his arm.”

“Do you know who he is?” Ryoga asks. “You’re so naïve, what if he’s—”

“A tourist?” Yuma interrupts sharply. She looks at Ryoga over the injured boy’s head and glares at him. Of course she knows this boy could be the Barian they collided with, but if he is, he doesn’t seem to be in any shape to battle them.

Yuma turns back to the boy and wraps gauze around his arm. “What’s your name?” She asks, going back to English.

“N-Nash,” the boy says.

“And what are you doing here?” Yuma asks him.

“I was with my family,” he says slowly, “We were hiking, looking for ruins, but I got turned around.”

Yuma nods and ties off the gauze. “Nice bracelet,” she says, nodding at the gold band around his wrist. Very out of place for a hiker.

Nash winces again and covers his wrist. “It’s a gift from family,” he says, almost defensively.

Yuma nods and hauls Nash up by his good arm. Astral and Ryoga are frowning at her, so she says, keeping with English, “I can’t in good conscious leave an injured person alone, so you should tag along with us just to be safe.” She glares at her boyfriend and goes back to speaking Japanese. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” She raises her eyebrows at him and he grumbles. If this boy is a tourist, he probably doesn’t speak Japanese. If he’s a Barian and can understand her, well then he knows she’s on to him. Let him do with that what he will.

Having no idea where the crash deposited them, Yuma closes her eyes and imagines a map in her head. she knows the coordinates for the ruins, and if she’s right she has a GPS locater in her bag…

But she doesn’t need the locator, because a scream echoes through the trees.

“That’s Kotori!” Yuma cries.

She, Ryoga, Astral and Nash take off in the direction of Kotori’s hysterics, and they emerge from the forest into a small clearing, where the ruins of an old temple sit. The screams are coming from inside the temple.

Yuma dashes in first and finds Kotori and Rio standing on a boulder, Kotori clinging to Rio and screaming hysterically.

“What’s wrong?!” Yuma demands.

Kotori sobs and points to the ground.

“Ooh!” Yuma squeals, instantly delighted, “It’s a rainbow boa!”

Rio pats Kotori’s back as she sobs that snakes are the enemies of “birds,” her namesake. Yuma gently grabs the snake behind its head so it won’t strike her out of fear, and then scoops it up around the middle. She releases the snake at the entrance to the ruin and shows Kotori that it is now gone. Kotori calms down, and Yuma introduces her friends to Nash, giving them the same stony look she gave Ryoga and Astral moments ago.

Ryoga walks further into the temple. “Seems to be a dead end,” he says.

Several things happen at once—Yuma yells at Ryoga not to walk around so carelessly in an old temple, at the same time pushing Kotori and Rio towards the wall, Astral floats around to examine the walls, and then the temple suddenly gets very dark.

Everyone turns—the entrance to the temple is now blocked off.

“Shit,” Yuma hisses. She grabs a flashlight from her backpack and switches it on. She glares up at Astral, but he puts his hands up—of course he couldn’t have done anything, he’s not corporeal.

There’s the sound of rock scraping against rock overhead and they all look up.

Nash lets out a shout, “Watch out!” He crashes into Ryoga and knocks him to the wall opposite where Yuma, Astral, Kotori and Rio are, and then a great stone slab slams to the floor, right where Ryoga was not a second before.

The three girls scream and Yuma rushes the slab, pushing with all her might, but the ages in ruin have not weakened the stone.

“I’m okay,” Ryoga calls. “The dead end opened up over here.”

Yuma looks over, so has the end over by them—now there’s a long stone corridor before them. “Same,” she says, trying to calm her racing heart. “Okay, I guess we start walking, but find stones or something to toss in front of you. Have you got a light?”

“Got my phone,” Ryoga affirms.

Yuma sighs in relief, then screams, “WHEN WE GET OUT OF HERE I’LL KILL YOU!” Before stalking down the new path.

Rio and Kotori jog after her.

“So, Nash, huh?” Rio asks.

Yuma nods and glances over her shoulder at Astral. “He and Ryoga think he’s a Barian. Maybe he is, he has some kind of weird, alien-looking bracelet, but he was hurt and didn’t attack me. Even though Vector’s a piece of work, maybe not all Barians are bad. Maybe if he is a Barian, I can show him that.”

“Is that wise?” Kotori asks.

Yuma shrugs. “But you know, he might not be a Barian either. Not everyone we meet is going to be.”

The four of them exit the tunnel and end up in a large chamber, where a statue of a horse stands front and center, and floating over the nose of the horse is a card-shaped bright light.

Yuma steps into the room and the light grows to the point that she has to close her eyes or risk being blinded. When she senses the light fade she opens her eyes and sees someone who looks like a medieval knight standing in front of her.

She gulps. “Wh-who are you?” She asks.

“I am Mach,” the person says. “I am the guardian of this ruin and its Number.”

“Yuma, be careful,” Rio says. “He’s a very powerful spirit.”

The guardian—Mach—raises his arm and a duel disk materializes. “If you want the Number, you must duel me for it and prove that you are worthy of it.”

Yuma nods. “Makes sense.” She sets up her own duel disk.

“Be warned,” Mach says, “This is a place of noble souls. If you fail this trial, I will take souls as payment.”

Yuma feels like she’s been doused with ice. “Wh-what?” She stammers.

Mach holds out a hand a blue orb materializes, showing Nash and Ryoga trapped in a small room.

“Their souls,” Mach says.

Yuma sways to one side and Astral tries to hold her up, but he has no physical form. “No,” Yuma whimpers. “No you can’t take their souls.”

“They have trespassed on this ground,” Mach says.

“Because of me!” Yuma shouts, tears in her eyes. “Please, if you have to take someone’s soul, take mine and not theirs!”

Kotori and Astral gasp, and Mach stares at her with a blank expression.

“You know what you are offering?” Mach asks. “You will never leave this place.”

“I would rather it be me agreeing to it than sacrificing my friends! They don’t have a choice!” Yuma says.

Mach smiles. “Then you must trust me that they will be okay.”

Yuma takes a deep breath and holds back the curses she wants to fling at this person. “Alright, I trust you.” She turns to Astral. “Do you trust me?”

Astral nods. “With all my heart.”

 

* * *

 

Door after door opens and Ryoga and Nash pass through them, never sure of what waits for them on the other side. Ryoga is on edge, unsure if he can trust the boy he’s been forced to share breathing space with. Finally they end up in a room with paintings on one wall. Ryoga squints at them, able to piece together a story from the pictures, but unable to read the inscriptions.

“What is this?” Ryoga muses.

“It goes like this,” Nash says. _“Once there was a group of knights who protected their land. The leader of these knights was a brave Hero who rode a Pegasus, and he loved the steed as his dear friend. Together the Hero and his Pegasus lead the knights in defense of peace and prosperity.”_

“How can you read that?” Ryoga asks.

Nash ignores him. _“One day the Hero and his Pegasus left the land for a brief time, and the other knights over threw the king. They were drunk on their newfound power, without their leader to guide them, and each began calling himself a worthy king.”_

A wall opens up and as if in a trance, Nash heads into the other room and continues reading. _“Hearing of the rebellion, the Hero and his Pegasus returned home. The Hero tried to reason with his comrades and remind them of their oath, but the knights turned against their leader. The Hero couldn’t bear to strike his friends even though they continuously wounded him. The knights were prepared to kill the Hero, but the Pegasus threw himself before his master. The knights attacked the noble beast…”_ he stops. “And there’s nothing more.”

Ryoga questions how this ordinary boy could possibly read this writing, but he’s also kind of…sad. He can guess how it ends. If the story is true, that’s horrible. Yuma would cry, he thinks with a small smile—she cries every time an animal dies.

The ground suddenly starts shaking. Ryoga gasps and looks for an exit, but there is none.

“I know how it ends,” Nash says, as if in a trance. “The Hero was unable to leave his beloved friend. He laid his body over the wounded Pegasus, and they died together, laying down their lives rather than betray each other, or the people who had hurt them.”

The ground disappears from under Ryoga’s feet. He shouts, but Nash grabs him before he can fall.

Ryoga glares up at Nash. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? You’re a Barian!”

Nash grits his teeth. “Yes, I am!”

 

* * *

 

Rio and Kotori scream as Ryoga falls, but Yuma can’t look away from Mach. Things are starting to make sense.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” She asks. “You’re the Pegasus in the legend.”

Above Mach, Number 44, Sky Pegasus, tosses its head. Mach closes his eyes and bows his head. “You have seen me for what I am, Yuma.” He says. “Now, will you pay life points to protect your Hope, or sacrifice it?”

Tears fall on Yuma’s cheeks. Astral puts his hand on her shoulder. “Yuma, trust your heart,” he says.

She smiles. “I pay my life points.”

 

* * *

 

The Barian—Durbe, the one Ryoga dueled in Sargasso—hauls Ryoga up, and as soon as he’s on solid ground, Ryoga smacks the Barian’s hand away. He’s terrifying, and Ryoga shudders. It’s the lack of the mouth that throws him off.

“I knew Yuma shouldn’t have trusted you,” Ryoga spits. “Why reveal yourself now? Why did you save me?”

Durbe looks at his wrist. “On this planet I can only access my powers with the help of Baria crystal. It is a living entity, not a mere rock as you might think. My crystal was damaged when I collided with your ship, and it needed time to heal, which it has now done. As for why I saved you, it was to repay Yuma for saving me when I was hurt.”

“But now you’re even,” Ryoga says. “So what, you’ll attack her as soon as we’re out of here?”

Durbe turns away. “I don’t know.”

 

* * *

 

Mach’s life points drop to zero and Yuma takes off her D-Gazer. She walks towards the duel spirit, who smiles at her.

“The moment you offered yourself in place of your friends I knew you were worthy,” Mach says. “We had to go through the duel anyway, and I knew you would win.”

Yuma grins. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. But how is it that Durbe could read the legend on the temple walls? Is it because he’s a Barian?”

Mach shakes his head. “No, but alas though I know him, it seems he doesn’t know me.”

Behind Yuma, Kotori gasps. “It was Durbe that was the hero in the legend?!”

Mach doesn’t answer her. Instead, he gives a formal bow. “Yuma, Astral, it will be an honor to join your battle.”

Mach is enveloped in light, which condenses into the shape of a card. The card flies to Yuma, and she catches it. Number 44 rests in her hands.

Yuma looks up again and catches light glinting off of the pedestal where Mach’s statue once stood. She walks over and kneels to inspect the point of light, and she gasps. “It’s a King’s coin!” She says, scooping up the coin. “My dad would leave these at locations he found especially challenging.”

“So he was here, then,” Kotori says.

Yuma nods. “I wonder if he was at all these locations.”

A wall opens up and Yuma turns—Ryoga is standing in the opening, and Durbe is behind him.

Yuma runs to Ryoga and hugs him tightly. “I could see you,” she says. “Both of you, and I could hear you.” She lets go of Ryoga and looks at Durbe. He stares at her.

She gulps—her heart is racing and her whole body is shaking, but she walks up to him. “Thank you for pushing Ryoga away from the wall, and for telling me about the legend, even though you didn’t know you were telling me about it…” she gives herself a shake. She can’t tell if Durbe is annoyed, amused, or plotting to kill her. His face is so hard to read without a mouth. “Anyway, I want you to have this.” She holds out her hand, and he extends his own. She drops the coin into his palm. “My dad would leave these when he went places that challenged him. I hope I can challenge your perception of me, and of Astral.”

She sees shock in Durbe’s eyes. He nods, then a wormhole opens up behind him an disappears.

“He could have said ‘thank you,’” Rio mutters.

“It’s okay,” Yuma says. “He heard me, and that’s enough.” He used to be human, he had to be if there was a legend about him on Earth. More than that, he was a hero to humans. Maybe she can reach that part of him.

Ryoga takes Yuma’s hand. “We’d better get moving—now that we know the Barians are on to us, we’ve got to keep searching.”

Yuma nods. Saving the world is not a job for the weary.


End file.
